6: Revenge of the Sith’s High Points

This Date in Star Wars History

Lots of birthdays today! Bruce Boa, who played General Riekkan; Jamie Glover, who voiced General Veers in video games (and whose dad Julian Glover played Veers in The Empire Strikes Back!); and other star Wars voice actors, including Winston Rekert, Peter Serafinowicz, and Gwendoline Yeo.

Life on “Tweet”-oine

Star Wars Swag bag

Trivia Time!

Yesterday’s answer: The Emperor

Today’s question: Who warned Jabba, “You can either profit by this, or be destroyed”?

Force feature

So Phantom Menace was probably the most highly anticipated movie of all time (at least, until Star Wars VII got announced). Attack of the Clones, well, I think many fans like you and me hoped, like with Empire Strikes Back before it, that the middle episode of the trilogy would be a doozy. I’m not saying it was bad, other folks can do that. I’m just saying it didn’t live up to my expectation.

But…

But…

Revenge of the Sith was where George had to stick the landing. I think we’d all given up hope in something awe-inspiring by that point. That’s not to say I wasn’t excited about seeing, though.

I was at the midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith, and this was the first time I saw a Star Wars movie in New Hampshire. Even in our sleepy little rural town of 7000 people, fans filled the joint. I grew up in Los Angeles, where you take that kind of availability and energy for granted.

There’s nothing like the energy of a midnight showing, and if you haven’t done it before, you’ve definitely gotta do it for Star Wars 7. My older son, who will be 13 when it comes out, is already on board.

As a Star Wars fan, you know what has to happen in this movie, and some folks think that dampens the enjoyment of it. Nonsense, I say. You watch Star Wars and Empire and Jedi over and over again, and you love it every time, right? I was excited – hedging my bets excited, but excited nonetheless – to see how Lucas pulled it off. The Jonathan Hales experiment from Attack of the Clones was over, so it’s just Lucas, which is a little nerve wracking.

It’s the beginning and the ending of the movie that really kick butt, isn’t it? Everything with Anakin and Padme in between is as wooden as it was in the last movie, so please let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about a spectacular space battle to kick things off. One of the best things Star Wars movies ever do is drop you right into the middle of the action and let you catch up on the way.

Capital ships pounding at each other, fighters flying all over the place, THAT was a great opening.

And finally, a quotable line! Obi-Wan: “So uncivilized!” I laughed out loud at that, as I recall. Perfectly delivered, Ewan McGregor, thank you. You, sir, have done yeoman’s work in this trilogy, and you have not been duly recognized.

What say you, Rebel-rousers? Didn’t he do a fantastic job all around as Obi-Wan? He and Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine are the unsung acting heroes of these movies. They did masterful work with the slag heap scripts they were given, and if you told me that half their lines were improvised, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Ahh, and the ending. I’d known from fan clubs and magazines as a kid that Obi-Wan and Anakin were supposed to have their big duel on a volcanic planet, and you can’t say enough about how well that turned out. That’s the scene I wanted to see more than anything else in the whole prequel trilogy, and God love ya, George, you pulled it off. It’s hands down, the best lightsaber duel in all six movies. Absolutely incredible, everything I hoped it would be and more. You made me proud George.

And then, you made Darth Vader go, “Noooooooooooooooooo!” and sliced the legs and arm off of my pride. Oh, it’s the worst, the worst! I don’t care if it was supposed to echo Luke yelling “Nooooo!” in Empire, I don’t even know if you thought of that, George, but we’re in a post modern world. Didn’t you see Austin Powers in 1997, where the guy yells “Nooooooo!” 80 yards away from a slow-moving steamroller? Ugh.